Peter Vincent

Eruvim: Talmudic places in a postmodern world

Lodged in the heart of Western urban space, eruvim are religious enclaves important to Orthodox Jewish culture. Eruvim enable acceptable behaviours on the Sabbath as defined by Talmudic theological dogma. Work, and the carrying of all objects associated with work, is prohibited in public spaces on the Sabbath by the Talmud, yet within the boundaries of the eruv, many such restrictions are relaxed, facilitating social interaction and community cohesion. This paper examines the religious and spatial dimensions of eruvim, including the obsessive detail paid to the demarcation of their boundaries, which serve as metaphorical walls and doorways. It also explicates the local politics through which private space is effectively extended into public space. Conceptually, the paper situates the topic within broader concerns about diasporic Jewish identity, which is threatened by assimilationism, slow demographic growth and secularization. It invokes recent theories concerning the spatialization of consciousness and subjectivity, noting the recent growth of eruvim as part of the global surge in ethnic identity that has emerged as a backlash to postmodern capitalism.

Differentiation of modern beach and coastal dune sands. A logistic regression approach using the parameters of the hyperbolic function

Abstract Particle-size data have been obtained from sieved samples of sand from beach and coastal dune environments at Ainsdale, northwest England. The four parameters of the hyperbolic distribution were calculated for each sample. These, together with additional derived parameters, were the basis of a binomial logit regression model which sought to distinguish the two sand environments. Seventy-five percent of the samples were correctly assigned by logistic equation containing a single independent variable, π, which is a measure of the skewness of the hyperbolic distribution.

International Collaborative Learning on the World Wide Web

Abstract Although the Internet has been widely celebrated for its potential to contribute to geographic learning, few have experimented with it as a vehicle for long-distance interactive collaboration. This article reports on an international effort whereby teams of students in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States worked solely via the World Wide Web on a joint project critically analyzing electronic representations of the Third World. It summarizes the projects design, problems, and principle results. It concludes that although Web-based interactive learning is feasible and may complement traditional pedagogic formats, it is an imperfect substitute for traditional face-to-face interaction that occurs in the classroom.

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of loessic sediments and cemented scree in northwest England

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates are reported for silts and very fine sands believed to be loessic sediments from northwest England. At three sites loessic sediments were initially interpreted as primary aeolian deposits, and at two other sites as loess incorporated into the matrix of cemented scree. However, the results of OSL dating indicate a more complex pattern of accumulation than originally hypothesized and have prompted reconsideration of these materials. Whatever the process(es) and underlying cause(s), it is evident that significant amounts of soil erosion occurred on the limestone uplands earlier than previously thought. All but one of the ages fall entirely within the Holocene period and suggest that these deposits contain reworked, rather than primary loess. Four of the five sites are characterized by non-Gaussian dose distributions, and consequently equivalent doses have been estimated using a range of appropriate age models. The implications of differences in the ages derived from the fine silt and fine sand fractions of the samples are considered. Three processes, namely aeolian transport, overland flow and subsoil piping, are invoked to account for the reworking of loess, although their relative contributions cannot be quantified. At one site the inclusion of limestone clasts within the reworked loess strongly suggests that the sediment can be regarded as loess-derived colluvium. Human impacts on the landscape and climate shifts, either separately or in combination, are considered to have been the most likely mechanisms that triggered loess erosion.

Religious diversity across the globe: a geographic exploration

This paper examines religious diversity at the global scale for 237 countries using data from the World Christian Database. It explores the social forces driving religious diversity, including national histories, demographic trends, and government policies, as well as the relations between religious diversity and religiosity. It summarizes several conceptual approaches to this topic. Empirically, four measures of diversity are employed: the number of religions in each country; proportion of adherents in the largest faith; the Shannon index; and the Simpson index. These are mapped using both conventional choropleths and Dorling cartograms. The diversity measures show that China, India, Russia, Japan, and Indonesia are among the worlds most religiously diverse states, and contrary to received wisdom, are more diverse than the USA, which is often regarded as the most diverse in the world.

Variation in particle size distribution on the beach and windward side of a large coastal dune, southwest France

Abstract Variation in particle size on the beach and windward slope of Europes largest coastal dune—the dune du Pilat, southwest France—is studied by means of the log-hyperbolic distribution. Grain size tends to coarsen up the dune as a result of progressive deflation of fines. The dune sands are well-sorted but there is no significant spatial variation in τ 2 . Twenty-one out of twenty-five sand samples have positive π values (negative phi skewness) and there is a weak but significant decline in π towards the beach. Dune sub-environments could not be detected using the hyperbolic shape triangle.

The Biogeography of the British Isles: An Introduction

The history and scope of British biogeography the physical environment recording species distributions useful concepts gaining a foothold limitations on the environment geographical relationships environmental change the thirst for land and loss of habits the consequences of urban and industrial growth.

Religious Diversity in the Southeastern U.S.

Religious diversity—the suite of options available to believers in a given area—is an intriguing phenomenon that is under-researched by geographers, though not by other social scientists. This paper examines the geography of religious diversity in the southeastern U.S. It offers an alternative to the neoclassical economics and social ecology perspectives by employing an approach borrowed from island biogeography to explain the spatial structure of religious diversity. Regression analyses using data from the Glenmary Research Center reveal that the relationship between denomination counts and county population size is strong and consistent over a wide range of southern states. Several interpretations of the data are provided, including an evaluation of positive and negative residuals.

Particle size-pediment slope relations: some findings from Saudi Arabia

Abstract The proposition that pediment slope is related to debris-size is shown to be flawed. This notion was examined on 15 traverses on rock-cut pediments in the southern Hijaz region of western Saudi Arabia. Complete particle size analyses of pedisediments were obtained and the moments used for pair-wise comparisons with down pediment changes in pediment slope. It is shown that simple comparisons of standardised regression coefficients are misleading and a formal test is introduced. No general picture emerges with regard to pediment slope-particle size relations for either the coarse or fine particle size fractions. Where particle size changes mirror the rates of pediment slope decline it is often the case that the pediments are cut across weathered granite whose clasts rapidly disintegrate into grus in a down-pediment direction.

CLARET AND COUSCOUS: THE SYMBOLIC TOWNSCAPE OF A MOROCCAN MOUNTAIN RESORT*

an oddity. Visitors can be fooled into thinking they are somewhere in the foothills of the French Alps. The peaked, red-tiled roofs of the imposing villas look Alpine. Gardens are bedecked with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees reminiscent of Provence. But Ifrane is also a complex bundle of power relations, a window into the dynamics of colonial landscapes. Mediterranean cities in general have long formed a pastiche of Eastern and Western urbanity, blends of European and Islamic economies, values, and lifestyles (Ehlers 2001). Ifranes intriguing townscape reflects the imprint of French colonial urban planning seventy years ago. The material and discursive inequalities erected then are still present. The towns geography is further complicated by the gulf between Arabs and Berbers in contemporary Moroccan society: The elite are no longer French colonials, they are Moroccan Arabs. Berbers, who constitute one-third of Moroccos population, have a long history of subjugation and resistance. Their marginalized status complicates the cultural decoding of Ifranes landscape, revealing that in this case the formerly colonized-the Arabs-have been only too happy to take over the roles abandoned by their French foreign masters. In this essay we decode Ifranes complex landscapes in light of contemporary postcolonial theory. We open with comments on the postcolonial turn, noting its Anglocentric bias, then turn to the historical context that underpins Ifranes distinctive social segmentation, including Arab and French rule. Finally, we focus on